Milwaukee Bucks: 5 goals for Ersan Ilyasova in 2018-19 season

Help establish consistency from long range

As all Bucks fans are aware of, one of the primary features Ilyasova brings to the table is his marksmanship from three-point range.

While he certainly can go through his fair share of ups and downs in that department, Ilyasova’s ability to stretch the floor from both the 4 and 5-spots is certainly valuable, given where the NBA has been trending toward in recent years.

That obviously played a significant factor behind his signing in this year’s free agency period and as is the case throughout all of the Bucks’ additions this offseason, Ilyasova will be relied on to widen the space needed for superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo to thrive.

The Turkish international spoke to exactly that following the Bucks’ opening practices in this year’s training camp as Ben Steele of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relayed last week:

"“I think it’s the best thing for Giannis,” Ilyasova said. “Use his ability to just beat players one-on-one. His creativity, he’s always trying to (pass). That’s good and why we try to give him more space and be on those blue boxes to create more space. The biggest emphasis of Coach is just to share the ball, space up and shoot a lot of threes.”"

It’s one thing to space the floor, but it will be another for Ilyasova to capitalize on the scoring opportunities from three that will be generated by the likes of Antetokounmpo, Eric Bledsoe and Khris Middleton. Ilyasova’s three-point percentage has mostly gravitated towards his career mark of 36.6 percent in the time he spent around the league the last few years as I explored early last week.

Maintaining that shooter’s mentality throughout the dry spells and can’t miss stretches won’t be easy, but it’s vital for Ilyasova to stay the course in what projects to be the biggest difference the Bucks display offensively under Budenholzer.